HTML5 ARTICLE

Netflix Will Soon Be Linux-Friendly Thanks to HTML5

It might sound strange, but Internet companies can’t really call themselves “big time” until they have support for all the major operating systems. You’ve heard of Apple’s (News - Alert) OS and Microsoft Windows, but there is still a dedicated group of Internet users who rely on Linux in order to go about their day-to-day operations. Netflix is apparently finally going “big time” with the announcement it will soon be servicing the Linux OS.

Netflix is making this possible by moving away from Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Silverlight driver and moving towards HTML 5. The move is certain to help Linux users who might want to binge-watch their favorite guilty pleasure using Ubuntu (News - Alert), Mint or Arch. It’s true that Netflix users who want to watch on the Linux platform are going to need to know their way around programming language because Netflix’s announcement isn’t a direct appeal to the Linux community so much as it is a very technical update.

Paul Adolph of Netflix posted a message to Ubuntu developers, telling them, "Netflix will play with Chrome stable in 14.02 if NSS version 3.16.2 or greater is installed." The tipoff in this message is the inclusion of NSS which is a joint effort of Mozilla, Google (News - Alert) and RedHat. The newer version of Ubunto should be able to work with this plugin and that is how Linux users are going to be able to watch Netflix on their devices.

The move is a subtle nod towards other things the company is doing to reach as many customers as possible. The firm is expanding overseas by teaming up with native companies in countries like Germany and Great Britain and offering up ways to make it that much easier to watch on a number of different devices. The company is also establishing itself as a major player on the Internet in general. Its campaign against those who want to change Net Neutrality has been well covered and seems to be getting embraced by users near and far.